Four of the eight board members voted to allow Burge to keep his pension of $3,039.03 per month, saying his conviction was not directly related to his job as a police officer. Five votes were needed to eliminate Burge's pension.

The four board members who voted for Burge to keep his pension are current or former officers elected by Chicago police: Kenneth Hauser, Michael Lazzaro, James Maloney, and Michael Shields. The four who voted against Burge were appointed by Mayor Richard Daley.

Hauser, president of the pension board, said Burge's federal conviction "had nothing to do with things he did when he was on the job. He was retired 10 years when they convicted him. . .It wasn't on charges of what he did when he was a police officer. It was on a lie that he made in front of a civil jury."

Shields added, "This question all comes down to one issue: Did Jon Burge have any law enforcement duties when he was accused of this perjury? In 2003, he did not."

Burge was convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice. Though he wasn't directly charged with torture, prosecutors had to prove those allegations to substantiate the charges.

Thomas J. Pleines, general counsel for the Chicago FOP who represented Burge, insisted the ruling was "the right one."

"The board members followed the law, and we're very grateful that Jon Burge will retain his pension benefits," he said.

But Flint Taylor, an attorney who has represented several of Burge's alleged victims, called the decision outrageous.

“To say that he should still be paid is mind boggling,” said Taylor when reached by phone. “It is a total slap in the face to the entire city and particularly the African American community.”

Under the state pension code, police officers convicted of a felony "relating to or arising out of or in connection with" their service as an officer are not eligible to collect their pensions.

Burge was long suspected of torturing men into false confessions and was fired from the Police Department in 1993 over the alleged torture of convicted cop killer Andrew Wilson. He began collecting his pension about four years later, when he turned 50.

However, Burge was never charged with torturing or abusing anyone. An investigation by a special Cook County prosecutor concluded in 2006 that Burge and his officers obtained dozens of confessions through torture but that the statute of limitations had long passed.

But in 2008, the U.S. attorney's office brought perjury and obstruction charges against Burge for denying the abuse in a 2003 civil lawsuit. A federal jury convicted him in June of lying under oath about the abuse.

U.S. District Judge Joan Lefkow sentenced Burge on Friday to 4½ years in prison in the perjury case, saying she did not believe Burge when he denied any knowledge of torture during his trial last summer.